Thursday, 24 July 2008

Change the tune: "Yes, alone everything is possible."

Recently, we, The Green Party (AD) praised the Nationalist Government for promising that Gozo will be turned into an Ecological island, an idea that had been put forward by Alternattiva Demokratika, two years ago.

I was one of the first who wrote to the Minister of Gozo and asked for an official meeting so that AD could submit its proposals so that this electoral promise could become a reality.

Those able to follow what we are proposing, we tailored an electoral manifesto specifically for Gozo which would create new, modern sustainable jobs and which would ensure the protection of the environment whilst promoting high quality tourism. (Read Here) .

Now that the government is adopting AD's political position, I feel that it is appropriate that we be the first to support the concept of an Eco-Gozo and offer our proposals to the Consultation Process which we hope will also be adopted by the Government.

Innovation of this magnitude calls for the involvement of all Gozitans and Alternattiva Demokratika is keen to share its knowledge and expertise.

In spite of the fact that nobody from Alternattiva Demokratika was invited for the official opening of the consultation process for Eco-Gozo, I attended anyway and also put forward to the Minister verbally our request for dialogue on the subject.

Despite that I already sent two reminders to the personal assistant of Govanna Debono, we received no reply at all.

I also e-mailed from the eco-gozo website set-up by the Gozo Minister informing that we are ready to sponsor this project even though our finances are extremely limited. What did I receive back? I simply got an automatic reply from her webmaster saying"Thank you for your feedback".

What a pity!

While I hope that the Minister for Gozo grants the request of AD for this dialogue, we hope that the Ministry for Gozo does not work in isolation but with other experts so that this ambitious project reflects a true representative democracy.

We also hope that the Minister for Gozo recognizes the whole of civil society as well as the contribution of individual entities which do not necessarily work closely with the Nationalist Party.

Eco-Gozo has to transcend party politics and this would be for the purpose of the Maltese public's full enjoyment of Gozo or whoever gets to visit the Island. At the end of the day, this project is for benefit of the future generation and not simply those who are going to vote in the next election.